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THEIR ANNUAL MEETING, 



GREENVILLE, S. C, JULY 18, 18% 



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HON. J. L. ORR. 



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G. E. ELFORD & CO., GREENVILLE, S. C. 

1855 



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CORRESPONDENCE. 



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Furman University, July 19th, 1855, 

Dear Sir: In behalf of the Philosophian Society, we earnestly solicit for 
publication the able and instructive Address delivered before the Literary 
Societies of the University on the 18th instant. 
Expressing the wish that you will comply with our request, 
We are your most obedient servants, 

J. K. McIVER, "] 
J. H. NASH, *>■ Committee. 
T. G. PEGUESj 
Hon. JAS. L. ORR. 



Anderson, S. C, August 6th, 1855. 

Gentlemen: I have received your note requesting a copy of my Address 
before the Literary Societies of Furman University for publication. 
I accede to your request, and transmit you herewith the manuscript. 
Accept my thanks for the complimentary terms adopted by you in commu- 
nicating the action of the Society whose organ you are 
I am, very respectfully, gentlemen, 

Yours, &c. 

JAMES L. ORR. 
Messrs. J. K. McIVER, -j 

J. H. NASH, }- Committee. 
T. G. PEGUES, J 



■¥Z 



ABHORS 



Gtntlemen of the Literary Societies 

of Furman University: 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

The day is bright and joyous for the patrons and friends 
of this University. The fourth year of its existence is now 
terminated. That which, in its inception, was considered an 
experiment full of temerity, has demonstrated its entire practi- 
cability. The halls have been crowded with matriculates: 
and this intelligent audience is here to felicitate Professors 
and Students, respectively, on their triumphs of teaching and 
learning. Parents and guardians, friends and spectators, with 
smiling faces and cheerful hearts, are here to congratulate pro- 
ficients and graduates on the trophies that industry and assi- 
duity have enabled them to bear away. 

And, yet, there are some heavy shadows cast over the retro- 
spect of the past session. Death has stolen into this campus — 
has seized upon his victims; and fond affection, with all its 
kindly solaces, has been impotent to stay the fearful tragedy 
which he has enacted. Maturity and youth have alike withered 
beneath his chilling embrace. In the prime of manhood, and 
in the midst of his usefulness, Professor Mims has sunk into an 
untimely grave. "A great man in Israel has fallen!" Long 
will his death be felt as a severe blow on this Institution ; but 
longer still will his memory be cherished by love, friendship 
and veneration. 

Youth, too, in its innocence and buoyancy, has been stricken 
down by the destroyer; and the earth has gloomily closed over 
the fair features and elastic forms of those who came here, less 
than one brief year ago, full of hope and life and promise. 
Friendship has already moistened with tears their graves, and 






^ ADDRESS. 

poured the balm of generous sympathy into the souls of be- 
reaved parents. Their hearts bleed ! Let us not reopen afresh 
those wounds which time alone can heaL These dispensations 
teach the living " what shadows we are and what shadows we 
pursue/' and admonish us to prepare for that solemn change 
which awaits all mankind. 

With these sad exceptions, the retrospect is pleasing to patrons 
and students. The machinery of organization has been put 
fully into motion, and its workings are harmonious and encou- 
raging. Some of the members of the University now end 
their collegiate career, to enter upon the stern and rugged duties 
of active life. To such let me say : You go forth with weighty 
responsibilities upon you. You are the first-born of this noble 
Institution, and the critical eyes of the public will be fixed upon 
your progress. Have you qualified yourselves, by your acqui- 
sitions here, to give her reputation and influence? Will your 
career be so upright and renowned as to inspire admiration for 
and confidence in your Alma Mater 7 Will your example be 
so bright and distinguished as to induce anxious parents to 
commit to these walls, and to your honored preceptors, the 
guardianship and culture of the minds and morals of their 
sons ? Will your aspirations be so pure and exalted that your 
cotemporaries will emulate, and your successors here be incited 
to imitate you ? If you have, perchance, neglected to partake 
of the rich intellectual repast spread so bountifully before you 
here, then should you be painfully and promptly assiduous to 
repair elsewhere the deplorable omission. It is not yet too late 
to reclaim lost hours and neglected opportunities. The destiny 
of Furman University is to be fixed by her Alumni ; and how 
ungrateful, if there were no higher considerations involved in 
your failure, that her sons should blight her fair fame and mil- 
dew her budding prospects ! But, young gentlemen, I have no 
forebodings in regard to your future. You will honor, and not 
abase, this Institution. You will go out into society her friends ; 
and your successes will be her highest commendation. 

The establishment of this University by the Baptist denomi- 
nation in South Carolina was wise, benevolent and tolerant 



ADDRESS. 7 

Its effect will be to raise the standard of attainments in your 
clergy, and to enlarge the intellectual accomplishments of your 
laity. When you became the patrons of a high seat of learn- 
ing, you did not restrict the enjoyment of your fountains of 
knowledge and science to the members of your faith only. It 
was a generous liberality which you exercised, when you invited 
the youth of all tenets to come and drink at your unpolluted 
fountains, without exacting conformity to your opinions — thus 
actually waiving the right to teach your peculiar religion, whilst 
allowing them to slake their thirst for knowledge. Your enlight- 
ened liberality endowed it, and yet no sectarian text-book has 
been introduced into the course of study; no sectarian dogma 
is inculcated from the professor's or chaplain's desk. You have 
enlarged the field of letters. The policy you have adopted will 
induce thousands to cultivate it who would not otherwise have 
ever crossed its hedges. You have removed all impediments, 
and have proclaimed that here education shall be free to all 
sects. This toleration is honorable to your profession, and you 
will have an abundant reward when the garnered treasures of 
this place shall be scattered by your pupils throughout the 
length and breadth of the commonwealth. You will see it in 
the ameliorated and exalted moral and intellectual condition of 
the people; you will see it in your high schools — in the pul- 
pit — at the bar — beside the bed of sickness. You will see it 
in the increasing dignity of the public press, and in the eleva- 
tion and refinement of literature. 

Education of high order always makes the deepest footprints 
on society ; without it, there can be but feeble progress- and 
imperfect civilization. The State that expends judiciously the 
largest sum for its dissemination is certainly to be recompensed 
in the exaltation of its members ; and hence, the State is deeply 
the debtor to its individual citizens who voluntarily contribute 
and combine their private means to promote public education. 
You have served the State in creating and endowing this Insti- 
tution. The extent of that sendee can be more fully understood 
by explaining the precise relation of the Institution to the pub- 
lic. It is endowed by the Baptist denomination and their 



8 ADDRESS. 

friends, and they are all its pledged patrons. But in the colle- 
giate or literary department it is organized with peculiar caution 
to abstain from teaching a single dogma of Baptist faith. This 
being true, can any objection be raised, in the mind of the most 
bigoted sectarian of any other denomination, to placing his son 
or ward under its pupilage ? The trustees have eschewed the 
inculcation of religious tenets in its organization, and the fa- 
culty in its operation. 

It is true that the student may breathe a moral atmosphere 
having more elements of the Baptist than any other religious 
persuasion, for most of the faculty are of that faith, and there 
is also a theological school, designed to prepare young men for 
the ministry, attached to the University. It is equally true that 
young men preparing for the ministry in all the orthodox Pro- 
testant churches are admitted to the collegiate and theological 
departments free of all charge for tuition. It is equally true 
that all students are at full liberty to attend Divine service on 
the Sabbath in any church — no rule prescribes attendance on 
a Baptist chaplain or in a Baptist church. Those great truths of 
the Christian religion, only, in which all Protestants concur, are 
expounded in the college walls — all controverted doctrines and 
principles are studiously avoided by chaplain and professors. 

And yet, it is urged, as a potent objection to this and similar 
denominational institutions, that they are sectarian. Is it just 
to Wofford, Erskine and Furman University, to assail them, 
and war upon their usefulness, by an imputation so unfounded 
in fact ? 

What constitutes a sectarian college ? Surely, not its endow- 
ment. It is the inculcation, by the faculty or chaplain, as a 
part of the education of the pupil, the peculiar tenets of the 
religious faith endowing and controlling the institution. There 
is, doubtless, a more rigid observance of Christian duties — of 
the holy Sabbath — of culture of the moral sense — a more ele- 
vated and high-toned morality— in denominational than in 
other colleges where no religious influence is exercised through 
their organization and practice ; and who will have the temerity 
to object that it is so ? 



ADDRESS. 9 

No parent, certainly, who builds hope, in confidence, upon 
the future of his son, should oppose the operation of such 
influences. Any religious impressions made from the teach- 
ings of the Holy Scriptures are preferable to infidelity ; and all 
should feel a lively interest in bringing their offspring under 
the restraining precepts found in the cardinal principles of all 
Christian faith. 

The evidences of Christianity are taught here — but the text 
books negative the suspicion that such teaching is designed to 
proselyte students to Baptist faith. Their pages are equally 
adapted to an Episcopal or Presbyterian as to a Baptist or Me- 
thodist college, and only seek to convince the youthful mind of 
the grand truths of Christianity. 

But, it may be urged that the impressions are insensibly made 
on the minds of students through the Chaplain's teachings, at 
prayers, and, on the Sabbath, in his lectures and sermons. A 
Chaplain who enjoyed the triumphs of proselyting more than 
the convictions of the heart in true piety, might, perhaps, give 
a partizan color to his ministerial exercises, and thus, indirectly, 
bias the sentiments of the hearers. But such hypocrisy could 
not long wear the mask ; it would be torn from his face, and 
he held up to the scorn of all honest men. Can the insinuation 
be justly indulged in against this Institution ? All who know 
your distinguished President and Chaplain will scout the impu- 
tation. He has built his reputation for virtue and piety upon 
a basis too enduring in the hearts of his countrymen for such 
a suspicion to be harbored against him ; he can never stoop to 
an unworthy artifice to proselyte to Baptist faith. 

There is, however, another answer which is conclusive in the 
defence of denominational colleges. Every college in the Union 
having a Chaplain is obnoxious to the same objection ; and in 
each of them the son is equally liable, through such an agency, 
to be seduced away from the religion of his fathers. In our 
own State there is a Methodist Chaplain at Wofford, an Associate 
Reformed at Erskine, an Episcopalian (I believe) at Charleston, 
and a Presbyterian at the South Carolina College. Does this 
fact furnish any well-founded objection to either of the Institu- 



10 ADDRESS. 

tions enumerated? The danger is imaginary, not real, and en- 
vious tongues should never wag in magnifying its consequence. 

These denominational colleges are engaged in educating our 
youth, and in inculcating a wholesome morality, without at- 
tempting to teach peculiar tenets ; and are, therefore, free from 
objection to all just minds. Their mission is full of philanthropy, 
and has already accomplished much for science and philoso- 
phy. I venture the opinion, based upon inquiry into the facts, 
that there are, in the States of North and South Carolina and 
Georgia, not less than five hundred young men enjoying, annu- 
ally, the high privileges of a collegiate course, who otherwise, 
but for denominational colleges, on leaving the grammar school, 
would have had the doors of all learning barred against them. 
The establishment of one has incited other denominations to 
an honorable emulation, which has multiplied extensively the 
facilities for general education. In their efforts to secure their 
endowment, the advantages of liberal education have been 
portrayed, by their clergy and agents, to the members of all the 
denominations. This secured subscriptions, and identified 
every contributor with the institution which his means aided 
to create ; and, when his son was prepared for college, it made 
each one the patron of his institution. And here it must be 
observed that the endowment has generally come from those 
who have not heretofore patronized any college — from sub- 
stantial farmers, with means to live comfortably and independ- 
ently, yet apprehensive that they were not equal to the cost of 
a liberal education for their children. But when they became 
identified with the new work, and learned more of its purposes, 
their opinions have undergone a change, and their sons are 
now reaping rich harvests from intellectual culture prosecuted 
in these denominational institutions. 

The colleges have been erected in rural districts — removed 
from the fashionable vices of large cities — and placed in local- 
ities where the expenses of living are so moderate as to reduce 
greatly the cost of education. They have been brought into 
the vicinage of populous communities, and opened wide their 
doors, to woo the neighboring youth to enter their classic halls. 



ADDRESS. 1 1 

They have, by their organization, induced many fond parents, 
who were deterred from exposing their sons to the temptations 
of college life, with unformed habits and no special religious 
influence to guard them, to commit them cheerfully to these 
institutions, in the pleasing confidence that their habits and 
morals would neither be corrupted or defiled. 

From the considerations enumerated, many have attained a 
liberal education, whose career will reflect honor on humanity. 
No small number of young men, with stinted pecuniary means, 
have been enabled to " drink deeply " from the fountains of 
knowledge opened by these denominational colleges, whose 
future lives will be a shining record of usefulness and renown. 

If these institutions have accomplished thus much — if their 
future is so full of promise — if so many intellects have been 
illuminated, by their grateful agency, which would otherwise 
have remained shrouded in dark ignorance — if their organiza- 
tion guides and guards the morals, and does not sectarianize 
the religion of their pupils — if their locations make them easy 
of access to large communities of our citizens — if they enjoy 
the confidence and patronage of the people — if their influences 
are elevating the social, moral and mental condition of the 
State — if all their aims and purposes are for the good, greatness 
and glory of South Carolina, why does the State neglect to aid 
them, by annual appropriations from the Treasury^ in their 
useful, and benevolent, and patriotic mission of educating, 
exalting and refining her citizens ? Why has there not been a 
concerted appeal to the Legislature from Furman University, 
Wofford, Erskine and Charleston Colleges, for an annual con- 
tribution to the great cause of learning ? Can the Legislature, 
in common justice, refuse to heed the reasonable prayer of the 
petitioners? Would it be wise statesmanship to neglect the 
opportunity of placing so many high seats of learning on a 
permanent and prosperous basis ? 

That all opposition may be silenced, annex, as a condition 
to the appropriation, that it shall only be expended in sustaining 
the collegiate department of the respective Institutions, and that 
no sectarian tenets shall be taught in that department to any 



12 ADDRESS. 

student. An annual appropriation of eight thousand dollars 
to each Institution enumerated would relieve them of all 
embarrassment, and enable them to enlarge and extend, very 
greatly, their facilities for imparting thorough education. 

But if these inducements should be held insufficient to au- 
thorize the appropriation, then let it be made with the additional 
condition, that each of the Institutions shall board, lodge and 
educate a certain number of indigent young men, to be selected 
in such manner as the Legislature may prescribe. The scheme 
is neither new nor theoretical — it works admirably in practice. 
It has been tried by Virginia, in her noble University, and has 
realized more than was promised for it. That Institution was 
the darling child of Mr. Jefferson's old age. Ripe in years and 
wisdom — having long before retired from the stormy seas of 
political life — he turned his thoughts to the education of young 
Virginia. His brain conceived the University ; and his appeals 
and arguments carried it through the Legislature. He watched 
its organization and inauguration with more than paternal 
solicitude. It was aided by an annual appropriation of fifteen 
thousand dollars, to pay professors, officers and contingencies. 
At the present time each professor's fixed salary is one thou- 
sand dollars ; but he receives, in addition, the tuition fee, for 
attending his school, from each student. This contingent com- 
pensation.jrun up some of the professors' incomes to more than 
five thousand dollars. It is now, however, provided that any 
excess of tuition over two thousand dollars shall pass to the 
University fund, to erect and repair buildings, and to meet con- 
tingencies. The income of every professor in that college, now, 
amounts to three thousand dollars, the maximum sum allowed. 
The average of tuition fees paid by each student is seventy-five 
dollars. The first student matriculated in 1825, and the session 
just closed exhibits upon its catalogue the extraordinary number 
of five hundred and fourteen students. What wondrous suc- 
cess has crowned Mr. Jefferson's last labor ! Before the limita- 
tion was made on professors' incomes, some persons, whose 
motives, I fear, were not worthy, began to assail the annual 
appropriation, on the ground that the tuition fees were adequate 



ADDRESS. 13 

to support the University, without the aid of a dollar from the 
State Treasury. These assaults made an impression so decided 
on the public mind that the appropriation was imperiled, and 
the friends of the University in the Legislature, with the assent 
of the Rector and Board of Visitors, consented to accept the 
appropriation of fifteen thousand dollars, on condition that the 
University should board, lodge and instruct, free of any charge 
whatever, one indigent young man from each Senatorial District 
in the State. There are thirty-two Districts in Virginia. The 
appropriation was accepted with the condition ; the young men 
soon filled up the places ; the appropriations have been contin- 
ued on the same terms ; and thirty-two young men, destitute 
of pecuniary means, are now, and have been for some years, 
the recipients of all the knowledge so freely dispensed by the 
able Faculty of that Institution. 

Was ever money so wisely expended? Virginia, by the 
appropriation, props her Institution with the moral power of 
her great name — secures its continued success by maintaining 
its high character — witnesses more than five hundred young 
men, annually, flocking to its classic walls — and opens up, by 
the most efficient training, the minds of thirty-two of her pro- 
mising sons, who would have lived and died in the shades of 
ignorance ; and all for the moderate sum of fifteen thousand 
dollars. 

If the scheme has succeeded so well in Virginia, what diffi- 
culties can exist to defeat it in South Carolina ? Should the 
Legislature wisely make the appropriations indicated, and 
extend its conditions to the appropriation made to the South 
Carolina College, it would educate more than one hundred 
young men, free of all charge, too poor to pay for their educa- 
tion in the higher seats of learning, and yet constituting the 
very finest material from which our most useful and valuable 
citizens are fashioned. Let the Legislature impose on the 
young men thus educated an obligation to teach a certain 
number of years, in consideration of the high privileges they 
have enjoyed through the munificence of the State. This 
scheme would give you able and accomplished professors and 



14 ADDRESS. 

teachers for your colleges and schools, public and private ; and 
in a few years, when the bud that you have nursed and culti- 
vated shall have become full-blown, it will deck, with beauty 
and magnificence, every highway of intellect 

With all the conditions annexed, it will be vain to object to 
the appropriation because of its uniting church and State, in 
violation -of the fundamental principle of our Government 
separating them. The honor and good faith of Trustees and 
Faculties will be pledged to observe the conditions, when they 
accept the appropriation. The appropriation cannot be refused, 
either, on the pretext that all the principal denominations have 
not colleges endowed. Let the Presbyterians and Episcopalians 
endow their colleges, and then appropriate to them the same 
sums, respectively, th#t is given to their elder sisters. It may 
be the means of inciting them to endow other new colleges. I 
trust it will; for the absurd idea that one college in each State 
is all that is required has been fully exploded — establish as 
many as the number of students requires for education. 

Upon what principle can the Legislature refuse the appropri- 
ation ? For two years past seventy-five thousand dollars have 
been expended on free schools ; and, in a period of forty years 
prior, the sum of thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars 
was annually consumed, in the delusive hope that every child 
in the State would receive an elementary education ; and yet 
the census furnishes the proof that it has fallen lamentably 
short of the benevolent end contemplated by its authors. Until 
some system, uniform and practical, can be introduced, reform- 
ing greatly existing irregularities in its disbursement, it would 
be wise to reduce the sum to the former amount, and appropriate 
the excess to the colleges just entering upon their career of 
usefulness. Give them now a permanent foothold, and it will 
guarantee their enduring and increasing success. They will 
polish into brilliancy and beauty many a rough intellectual 
diamond. Genius, thus cultivated, will rise up, and, in " words 
that burn," will pour the thanks of big hearts, swelling and 
gushing with gratitude, on the names and memories of legisla- 
tors who had the sagacity and philanthropy to provide for its 



ADDRESS. 15 

development and enlightenment. What greater boon can man 
confer on his brother man than to knock off the shackles of 
dark and dreary ignorance, and invest him with diadems of 
learning and wisdom ? The State can do it all now, by becom- 
ing a patron to that temple of learning which your liberality 
has reared and endowed. The small appropriation indicated 
above will enable these colleges to enlarge their present corps 
of professors. More of their private means may then be 
devoted to the completion of their buildings ; to the collection 
of complete apparatus, chemical, philosophical, mechanical and 
astronomical ; and to such other objects as may be of benefit 
to the student in prosecuting his studies. 

Let the Legislature remember that the intellectual renown of 
Carolina is the justest and noblest boast of their constituency ; 
let them remember that many of those whose mental achieve- 
ments have been pre-eminent, emerged from those walks in life 
which this appropriation is intended to reach and guide to the 
paths of usefulness and distinction. Make the appeal, then, 
frankly to the Legislature for aid ; make it earnestly ; make it 
with a fixed purpose to succeed. It is just, and failure, there- 
fore, cannot be anticipated. If it should, however, fail, make it 
to the people, and your appeal will not be made in vain. 

The establishment of a University in this State is an experi- 
ment. Sufficient time has not yet elapsed to pronounce it 
absolutely successful. The indications, in every department, 
are indeed flattering ; and when the experience of older similar 
institutions is consulted, there is not the slightest danger of 
failure. It will succeed — the success will be definitely marked 
and universally conceded. The treadmill curriculum of the 
college proper, in a few years, will only be known in history. 
It is destined to become one of the curiosities of literature. It 
will be a subject of wonder that a system of mental culture 
prevailed, which, by requiring every student to pursue it, pre- 
sumed that the tastes, talents, capabilities and future pursuits 
of. all in the college walls were identical ; and that each one, 
at the end of his cycle, was entitled to the same learned degree 
of Bachelor or Master of Arts in every department of human 
knowledge pursued during that cycle. The future will wonder 



1 6 ADDRESS. 

that a system was ever pursued that degraded the highest and 
brightest intellect from those regions where it was capable of 
soaring, down to the level of the dullest, by giving each the 
same mental training, and crowning the exodus of each from 
college with the same honorable and learned degree! Its 
inaptitude in preparing youth for the duties and responsibilities 
of active life is yearly becoming more manifest; and that 
sound sense that usually shapes wholesome public opinion has 
already initiated the corrective in converting former systems 
into the University plan. 

For a major part of students, the undue importance given to 
ancient, classical and to mathematical studies, by the college 
curriculum, and the consequent imperfect course appropriated 
to natural and moral science, is a positive evil, which calls 
aloud for a corrective. There are two classes of students to 
whom this objection is especially applicable. The first are 
those who, upon trial, evince neither taste, talents nor capabilities 
for these studies, and yet possess abilities equal to the task oi 
mastering other departments of human knowledge. The second 
are those who, upon joining college, have determined their 
future pursuits, and the successful prosecution of that pursuit 
does not require extraordinary attainments in one or both these 
studies. Both these classes are met by the inexorable requisi- 
tion of the college course, and much of the student's time — 
precious time to them — is unprofitably spent in gratuitous 
studies, to the neglect of those sciences which are to subserve 
absolute necessities every day they live. Nature has clearly 
indicated, in most men, by their physical and mental constitu- 
tion, a capacity for eminent success in some one profession or 
employment When thus marked, it should be most elaborately 
cultivated. Life is too short and fleeting to master all the 
departments of human knowledge. Such should be pursued 
as will enable the individual the better to develope his peculiar 
endowments, since it is in the exercise of these only that he 
can possibly achieve, usefully, those duties which shall promote 
his own success and illustrate the special purposes of God in 
his creation. Modern languages, valuable alike for utility and 
accomplishment, are sacrificed in many colleges to appease the 



ADDRESS. 1 7 

insatiate cravings of the curriculum for Latin and Greek. Is it 
a wise sacrifice, when every day, in the social circle even, 
admonishes the uses of modern tongues? The course com- 
mences and terminates with the dead languages; and gradu- 
ating students are often familiar with a despicable and vicious 
heathen mythology, that brutalizes the imagination and moral 
sense, who are ignorant of the history and literature of their 
own country. Many can detail the siege of Troy, who have 
no knowledge of the siege and capture of Yorktown. 

But, let me not be misunderstood. I do not urge the expul- 
sion of the ancient languages from our system and course of 
education. It is the undue importance given them in most 
colleges that provokes these observations, and the impossibility 
of obviating the objection under any other than the University 
system. A knowledge of the ancient languages is useful — nay, 
to the professional man, almost indispensable — and every ma- 
triculate here should devote a part of his term to their acquisi- 
tion, as an auxiliary to the proper understanding of our own 
language, and as an accomplishment — except such as are, from 
any cause, incapable of acquiring them in a reasonable period, 
or when the time and means of the student will not permit it, 
unless at the expense of more useful and important studies. 

Your course in this Institution is judiciously denned, and the 
great majority of your students will master it; but they will not 
pursue it to the neglect of physical and mental science. The 
importance of physical knowledge is developed day after day; 
it is the learning of utility in our day and generation. Its de- 
mands upon civilized man are admirably sketched by Professor 
McCay in his able inaugural address. He says : 

"But the study of physical science is not only in harmony 
with the times and the civilization in which we live ; it is of 
the highest practical utility to every member of society. Has 
any one a house to build, a room to warm, a clock to regulate, 
a machine of any kind to construct or repair ? does any one 
feel an interest in frosts or rains, or dews or winds ; in soils, or 
rocks, or drains, or waterfalls ; in mills, or factories, or engines, 
or railways ; in manufactures or mechanical trades ; in work 



IS ADDRESS e 

or toil of any kind ? How imperative is the demand for phy- 
sical knowledge ; how immense the advantage of a thorough 
and intimate acquaintance with the material things on which 
his labor is employed !" 

How can its utility to man be estimated, in all its relations to 
society, and yet how little time, in the usual college course, is 
appropriated to its acquisition, compared with the months and 
years occupied in antiquated classical and mathematical stu- 
dies ? The text books and the acquirements of graduated 
collegiates will furnish the answer. The University system is 
rapidly curing the evil and error, by giving to natural science 
the dignity and consequence to which its merits entitle it. 

The usual collegiate course is terminated in three or four 
years. The senior class, if composed of ten or one hundred 
members, have been taught from the same text books ; have 
heard the same explanations ; have received the same instruc- 
tions ; are candidates for the same degree ; and it is a rare 
exception that all are not graduated, and do not become the 
recipients of the same degree, which thus endorses their equal 
scholarship to the public. How are they thus brought to such 
exact equality, when the God of nature himself establishes no 
such uniformity of excellence ; when he creates some the infe- 
riors of others ; when their preparation at the high schools has 
been so varied and dissimilar ; and when application in college 
has drawn even a deeper and broader line in attainments than 
nature did in capabilities ? Is it not clear that this can only be 
done by making the capacity and acquirements of the inferior 
the standard of scholarship ? If not, the degrees conferred on 
the inferiors are unmerited, and the faculty make a public en^ 
dorsement of that which is false. They graduate the whole 
class, and certify each member to be learned in the liberal arts. 
What is the necessary effect of such a policy on genius, talent 
and industry, throughout the whole course ? Does it not extin- 
guish the strongest stimulant to man's nature, by withdrawing all 
incentive to industry and all reward for well-earned victory ? 
Practical experience affirms the baleful influences of this leveling 
system ; effected by pulling down the brightest and most gifted, 



ADDRESS. 19 

and not by pushing up the dull, reckless and incapable. The 
possession of a learned degree from a curriculum college is not 
now, in the estimation of the public, any evidence of thorough 
scholarship. It is not credited by the trustees of your high 
schools. Many young graduates, who propose to embark in 
teaching, take the precaution to procure from the individual 
members of the f&cuUy certificates of their scholarship. Is not 
this necessity a reproach to the college graduating him ? If the 
diploma is not evidence of attainments, has it been conferred 
for any other purpose than to save the feelings of the student, 
or to gratify a fond and anxious parent ; and is it not thus a 
fraud upon the public and a mockery of all learning ? And 
yet it is an evil which seems to allow of no remedy, under the 
college system of teaching. It can only be cured under the 
University system. There the student graduates in each parti- 
cular school, and receives his certificate therefor, but does not 
receive the master's degree until he shall have first graduated 
in all the schools, seriatim, prescribed for obtaining such degree. 
This leads to separate and rigid examinations in each school, 
respectively, and the student stands or falls on his qualifications 
in that school alone. Having previously graduated in five 
schools will not weigh a particle in his favor on the examina- 
tion in the sixth, graduation in which last may be absolutely 
necessary to obtain the master's degree. 

Under the college system, every senior receives his bachelor's 
degree. When the number of students is two hundred, the 
annual graduates are about fifty — one-fourth of the whole 
number of matriculates — and yet, in the best organized Uni- 
versity in the United States, that of Virginia, the whole number 
of matriculates the present year, in the literary department, were 
three hundred and twenty, and there were but nine candidates 
for the master's degree, though nearly every student graduated 
in one or more schools. This University, I am gratified to 
know, furnishes about the same ratio. This is the fourth year 
of its existence, and the first degrees will be conferred to-mor- 
row. The matriculates number two hundred and thirty, and 
diplomas are to be conferred on but six young gentlemen. It 



20 ADDRESS. 

is a far better recommendation to the thoroughness of the stand- 
ard of scholarship than if the graduates had reached fifty. 
Degrees thus conferred and obtained are of real value — their 
possession is no fraud upon science, and when they go forth 
no private certificates of attainments will be requisite to inspire 
confidence in the public mind in behalf of the graduates. 

In the University, no time is prescribed within which the 
degrees may be obtained ; the industry and capacity of the 
student alone determine the period to be employed in their 
accomplishment. This is the highest incentive that can be 
applied to the youthful mind, which is usually so full of aspi- 
ration and hope. He embarks in a contest against time ; he 
has competitors of the same metal with himself; and it is 
diligence alone which can be certainly rewarded. He is not 
clogged by slowly revolving years in achieving his trophies; 
delayed in order that dull and idle associates may be dragged, 
by time only, to that fascinating goal — a degree, and the end 
of college life. He is individualized in all his schools ; which 
excites him to unremitting efforts to accomplish something, if 
it be but a graduation or distinction in a single school, that he 
may cany home and tender to a proud father and loving mo- 
ther. The ambition of each is thus not only stimulated, but 
the attention is wedded to the lecture-room, lest, perchance, 
some explanation may fall from the professor, an ignorance of 
A\ r hich, on the day of final accounting, may prove destructive 
to all his hopes. It is the only system where persevering 
industry can count upon recognition by adequate reward. The 
master's degree may be obtained in two years if the candidate 
passes successfully the ordeal of scrutinizing written and oral 
examinations ; it may be unavailingly sought for ten years if 
there is but mediocrity in a single school. It is the high stand- 
ard of attainment that wins the degree, and not the months or 
years spent in college walls. 

The distinguishing feature of the University plan is the 
privilege extended to parents or students, to select the course of 
studies 'y and it is this feature that provokes the strongest oppo- 
sition among the friends of the old regime. The assertion is, 



ADDRESS. 21 

that it leads to irregular and superficial education. It assumes 
that the parent would not instruct the son to pursue a thorough 
course of study, or that the student, if the discretion be confided 
to him, would not do that which he came to college to do — 
acquire the largest aggregate of knowledge accessible from his 
course of study. 

If the parent desires the son to take a thorough course, it 
can be done just as well in the University as in the College. 
If the father omits some branches embraced within the curri- 
culum, he does it for a reason. The opponents of the University 
assume, without knowing it, that the reason is not substantial, 
and, therefore, overrule it by saying that the son should, never- 
theless, pursue the curriculum. Who is usually the best judge 
of the tastes and inclinations of the son, the father or strangers ? 
Would the father make the omission if it were to result to the 
injury of the son? When the father exercises his discretion, 
and instructs the faculty to educate the son for the master's 
degree, he is taught in the schools requisite for its attainment, 
with the same system and regularity as in the college proper, 
with this advantage enjoyed by the father — that he knows his 
son cannot exhibit the degree unless it has been earned by 
thorough scholarship. But, the crowning good derivable from 
the discretion confided to the father consists in his being able 
so to direct the course of the son as to develope and cultivate 
those branches for which he has taste, talent and aptitude. 

It is fashionable now for youths to enter college at a veiy 
early age — too early to possess that maturity of intellect which 
is necessaiy to comprehend readily the text books and the pro- 
fessor's lectures, which expound them. At eighteen (which I 
conceive to be a proper age for entering college) most young 
men have determined upon or conceived the profession or pur- 
suit which they intend to engage in when- they go forth in the 
active duties of life. If that question has been settled by the 
consent of parents, is it not manifest wisdom for each to com- 
mence forthwith to shape and fashion his education so as to 
qualify him, by the highest attainments therein, for its success- 
ful prosecution ? 



22 ADDRESS. 

If medicine is the selected profession, would it not be greatly 
to his interest to pursue, with peculiar diligence, those studies 
contributing to the highest skill and perfection therein ? Should 
mathematics share a moiety of his time with physical science? 
Should Latin and Greek engross months or years, and chem- 
istry only days or weeks ? If the law is chosen, what class of 
studies should occupy his attention ? Should the same import- 
ance be attached to chemistry, higher mathematics and ancient 
languages, as to moral and mental philosophy, rhetoric, logic, 
belles-lettres and medical jurisprudence? If engineering is 
fixed upon, would the student act wisely to divide his hours 
with metaphysics and rhetoric, on the one hand, and mathe- 
matics and natural science, on the other? These interrogations 
compel their own answers. It is not only wise, looking to the 
iuture, in thus selecting studies, but it is equally so for the col- 
legiate term — for, the human mind acquires much more rapidly 
when the subject matter engaging it is intrinsically interesting, 
and the knowledge attained is far greater, than if kept plodding 
over subjects to which it is indifferent. Is there not pre-eminent 
wisdom in the University plan, which invites the student to the 
prosecution, with especial attention and assiduity, of those 
branches which are to qualify him for that station in life he 
means to assume? Is it not a wisdom founded in the philo- 
sophy of man's nature, and vindicated by every day's observ- 
ation ? The college system precludes such selection ; all must 
travel the same road, though their future destinies may place 
them in very different pursuits and employments. In this 
respect, which is the preferable system ? 

It was Mr. Jefferson's opinion that the University plan secured 
more active and efficient teaching. The peculiarity of its organ- 
ization enabled the trustees to compensate professors partly by a 
small fixed salary, and partly by tuition fees, to be paid by each 
student for each school he attended. The separate and inde- 
pendent schools making up the whole, individualized each 
professor, and he was, therefore, entitled to all the commenda- 
tion for success, and open to all the censure for failure. His 
aim is to recommend his school by thorough teaching, exhi- 



ADDRESS. 23 

bited in the superior attainments of his graduates, from two 
strong, concurring motives — pride of success in his business, 
and the augmentation of his salary — the natural result of his 
attracting a large number to his school by his efficiency. It 
begets a laudable emulation among the professors themselves, 
and guards against their resorting to mean artifices to increase 
their numbers, by making their income, in part, a fixed salary. 
It makes the professor directly responsible to the public for the 
scholarship of each of his graduates; and thus, each profes- 
sor in charge of a school required for a master's degree sees 
that he cannot shelter himself behind the faculty when his 
graduate proves deficient in the branch he teaches ; hence, he 
makes his a rigid examination for graduation. He selects his 
own text books, prepares his own lectures, and watches the 
daily examinations to which his class is subjected in the text 
books and the lectures explaining them. Hence it is, that good 
conduct and a high stand in one school is of no avail to the 
student in another. Each professor carries his student through 
his own ordeal, on his own merits ; if he succeeds, he is worthy 
of it — if he fails, no vote of the faculty will graduate him. 
The teaching is more efficient for another reason: the entire 
time of the student is usually engrossed, for the session, in the 
schools of only three professors. The student's mind is, conse- 
quently, not dissipated and wasted, by too many studies press- 
ing him at one and the same time. This enables him, really, 
to attain comparative excellence in such as he pursues ; and, 
at the end of the session, he, perhaps, graduates in the three 
schools. The next year he takes up three others, and prose- 
cutes them in like manner. Thus he continues, until he has 
gone through all the schools, and receives his degree by virtue 
of his separate graduations. 

Under the college system, the consolidation of the professors 
makes one whole — the single professor loses his individuality, 
and becomes an element in the faculty. This prevents the 
adoption of the University plan for compensating professors by 
tuition fees. The nearest approach is to divide equally the 
fees, as the curriculum requires each student to attend the lee- 



24 ADDRESS. 

ture room of each professor; hence this means of inciting 
efficient teaching is lost under the college system. The student's 
mind is also crowded with too many studies to attain great 
results in any — the course requiring him to attend the lecture 
room of all the professors during the same week, and prosecute 
all the studies of the course at the same time. 

The University teaching is more efficient, for still another 
reason : When three schools are attended, the same time is 
employed by their respective professors, as an entire faculty, with 
the whole course of studies, would occupy ; giving to each stu- 
dent, thereby, double the time to make recitations, hear lectures 
and undergo examinations, that he would enjoy if attending 
ah the professors. This enables the professors to deliver a more 
complete course of lectures in exposition of the subject and in 
explanation of the text books, and gives more time for exami- 
nations. It also enables them to classify their schools into 
junior, intermediate and senior, so as to have a class approxi- 
mating the capacity and previous acquirements of their entire 
classes. By this means, the professor is in practice what most 
professors are only in theory — he is the real instructor in his 
school. Instruction through lectures is of the greatest utility ; 
the explanations precede the study of the given chapter in the 
text book, and the student then enters upon it with a general 
view and knowledge of the theories or principles therein taught. 
It comes at the right time to aid the student. Oral instruction 
is more readily comprehended and more permanently impressed 
than the same teaching from dusty books. The student, by 
such instruction, is accustomed to treasure the idea, not the 
language merely — the chain of reasoning, not the arbitrary 
result. The great philosophers and teachers of antiquity taught 
their classes exclusively by lectures, and it is very far from cer- 
tain that its general abandonment in colleges is any improve- 
ment upon their system. Mr. Jefferson was right, then, in 
attributing to the University system more active and efficient 
teaching than could be obtained in the colleges. 

I might extend the catalogue of advantages of the University 
over the College system of education. I have not the time, nor 



\ 



ADDRESS. 25 

you, perhaps, the patience, for any further pursuit of the parallel. 
Sufficient has been said, I trust, to confirm your convictions of 
its superiority, and convince you that a few years will see the 
college system repudiated as unsuited to the spirit and require- 
ments of the age, and the University plan adopted as furnishing 
the most certain facilities for the thorough and practical educa- 
tion of our youth. 

Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees : 

You will pardon me in making some suggestions for your 
especial consideration. Your organization is judicious, and will 
command the confidence of the public. The large number of 
your matriculates requires you to increase your corps of pro- 
fessors; the labor is too heavy to be performed by the existing 
corps. Your limited means, and the varied calls upon your 
resources, has, doubtless, preA^ented you from ordering the in- 
crease heretofore. This will be obviated, I trust, through a 
successful appeal to the Legislature. If disappointed in that 
quarter, you will make a vigorous effort once again to increase 
your endowment by private donation ; and inscribe upon all 
the spires of your stately University buildings this motto: "We 
will not abate our efforts until this shall be made a great tem- 
ple of learning." Add to your existing schools law and medi- 
cine. One professor for the first, and two, in connection with 
the professorship of chemistry, for the latter, will be the neces- 
sary increase. Your school of theology is already in operation, 
and this addition will complete your University organization, 
in every department. You can then graduate students in all 
the learned professions. We have no law school in South 
Carolina, and very many of our young men are now prosecut- 
ing, and will continue to prosecute, the study of the law in the 
private offices of the State, and at the different law schools in 
other States. An able jurist at the head of your school would 
no doubt attract many pupils — a sufficient number to sustain 
the chair without taxing your endowment. A medical school 
would, likewise, be a valuable acquisition ; and in a short time 
it would be self-supporting* It would recommend itself to 



26 ADDRESS. 

every student, by its single course of lectures extending through 
a period of ten months, whilst the course in the medical col- 
leges is crowded into four months, giving fuller time and oppor- 
tunities to acquire the profession in the former than the latter. 

The professional students will exercise a happy influence 
over those in the literary department. Their age promises for 
them steady and studious habits ; fixed principles ; a proper 
appreciation of the value of time and opportunities ; ambition 
for literary and professional success; refinement and elevation 
of aspirations ; a high and pure standard of honor and charac- 
ter, and a capacity to resist the temptations besetting so con- 
stantly the path of youth. These influences will all be instilled, 
by example and association, into the juniors, whose inexperi- 
ence and thoughtlessness make them a prey to evil temptation. 

You will give these views, gentlemen, such consideration as 
you may think they merit. Philanthropy and learning are 
deeply your debtors for what you have already done in rearing 
this noble Institution. It will be felt when you shall have been 
gathered to your fathers. A grateful posterity will rehearse for 
you high eulogiums on each recurring commencement day. 

Goiflemen of the Philosophian Society : 

I thank you for the honor of representing you on this occa- 
sion. The duty has been cheerfully performed, though other 
engagements have pressed me greatly throughout its prepara- 
tion. The topics selected have been presented in very general 
terms ; their elaborate discussion would consume more time 
than I have to speak or you to hear. Sufficient has been said 
to excite inquiry in the public mind, and the deficiencies in the 
picture may be filled up by other artists, to make it a consistent, 
homogeneous and imposing whole. My object has been to 
serve you, my countrymen and the cause of education, by 
suggesting cures for evils in our existing systems. 

Young gentlemen, yours is a bright future ; panpplied in the 
armor of learning, you may carve out nobly your own future 
destiny. Industry and energy, will and purpose, have hewn 
down mountains and filled up valleys ; ploughed the deep blue 






4 



ADDRESS. 27 

sea, and opened to the admiring gaze of an incredulous world 
the primeval forests of a new continent ; prostrated those forests, 
and converted them into smiling fields ; built cities ; explored 
the labyrinths of science and philosophy ; advanced the civili- 
zation of our race to the towering height which it has already 
reached. All has been attained by aggregating individual in- 
dustry and energy. Man, individual man, lias made these 
brilliant achievements, and still has left much for you to accom- 
plish. Go to your respective missions, with industry and energy, 
purpose and will, deeply graven as your motto, and you will 
never realize the pangs of shattered prospects and shipwrecked 
hopes. Go where you may, you will carry my cordial wishes 
for your success in all the paths of glory and distinction which 
merit or fortune may decree you to tread. 



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